There is a lot said about Napolean being the amazing reformer of France.  But I think that he was really just the lesser evil compared to King Louis, where everyone was starving to death, or the reign of terror when people were being executed in the masses on some of the lamest charges ever.

I see the people of France accepting Napolean as their leader like they were trying to make progress toward democracy like America, but then they got shut down by the reign of terror and had to back to not quite square one but one and a half.

Because I have the feeling that Napolean did prevent France from becoming all it could be, I came up with the question: Did Napolean Prevent Progress in France?

 

Napolean did provide economical stability however he took many liberties away from the people.  Including: depriving them of a voice in the government, censoring speech and press, practicing unjust arrest and imprisonment, and maintaining a secret police.  His Napoleanic code set some of the rules back to where they were before the revolution especially by taking away almost all rights women had which were already very few.  He ruled despotically, aroused a spirit of intolerant nationalism, and established a tradition of war and militarism.

 

Though he was a great general and was very successful in wars that helped France in the short term, he created what was almost a continuous war for twenty years.  And even if it helped the country it led to the many French deaths that devastated the nation.

 

In the end I think that if Napolean was good for the progress of France as a country the people would have kept him as their leader instead of exiling him to live out the rest of his life.